Venable partner Claudia A. Lewis was quoted in a February 27, 2015 Law360 article on a recent federal court ruling upholding the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) findings against Pom Wonderful. The FTC said Pom used deceptive claims while advertising the health benefits of one of its products. The ruling sets an explicit bar advertisers must cross to avoid regulatory backlash over specific claims.
"If a company is making generic structure function claims, such as that the product supports heart health, then citing publicly available literature rather than a trial is likely to be sufficient," said Lewis. "But if the company is promising something more about the specific impact the product will have on heart health and the time frame, those types of claims are likely to need some type of clinical substantiation behind them." She added, "It's important that the claims are carefully tied to the science, and that the claims don't outpace the science too much."